The House on Thursday voted to formally censure Rep. Charlie Rangel for financial misconduct despite pleas from the New York Democratic lawmaker and some of his colleagues for a less punishing reprimand.
The final vote was 333-79.
Rangel, who will become the 23rd House member to be censured, must now appear at the front of the chamber while Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads the resolution.
Censure is the most serious House punishment short of expulsion. His supporters asked instead for a reprimand, which would eliminate that humiliating appearance.
But the House voted against downgrading the punishment 146-267.
Earlier, Rangel offered an apology and a plea for leniency in the sunset of his career, agreeing that he broke congressional rule but that censure was unfair.
The dapper 80-year-old Rangel, wearing a blue suit, blue tie and a blue handkerchief, faced his colleagues and told them, “I have made serious mistakes” including filing misleading financial disclosure forms and failing to pay all his taxes. But he pleaded with the House to be “guided by fairness.”
Several House Democrats — and one Republican lawmaker stood on the House floor and said a reprimand was a more appropriate penalty.
New York Republican Rep. Peter King said there was no doubt that Rangel violated House rules, but there was no evidence of criminal intent.
Democrat Lynn Woolsey of California said Rangel’s transgression did not rise to the level of a censure.
Two other House Democrats, Leonard Boswell of Iowa and John Tanner of Tennessee, also pressed for a reprimand.
The House ethics committee painted Rangel as a congressman who ignored rules of conduct and became a tax scofflaw despite his knowledge of tax law from his long service on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
(Read More: Fox News)
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3 Responses
He wrote tax laws & then didn’t pay his own taxes! Why should he be above his own laws? He should have been forced to step down as Congressman. He is a real low-life & censure isn’t strong enough for this cheat. I’m only relieved that the House didn’t fall for his phoney-baloney remorse. He deserves this humiliation.
I wonder if censure vs reprimand is just a smokescreen for punishment. By fighting it Rangel makes it sound like he is getting a terrible punishment. If a regular person did what he did, he would be going to jail. Who would not gladly accept censure over jail?
pray4all,
No, neglect of taxes — as opposed to deliberate intent to deceive the IRS — is generally not punished as a crime. Even political enemy Peter King agreed in the article that there was no criminal intent here. Rangel’s punishment is the most severe the House has handed out in decades.
I thank Congressman Rangel for his bravery during the Korean War, and for his many years of service as a Congressman that includes great support to the Jewish community and for Israel. I wish him a long and happy retirement.